Rule designed to protect whales

Posted: Friday, June 01, 2001

The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - People will have to stay at least 100 yards away from humpback whales under a federal rule designed to keep the animals from being harassed by whale-watchers in Alaska's coastal waters.

The new regulation, which goes into effect July 2, was scaled back from a 200-yard limit proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service after regulators evaluated comments from 42 individuals and groups, mostly environmentalists and charter boat operators.

"We worked closely with the public and the whale-watching industry to balance protection of the whales with public demand for enjoyable whale-watching opportunities," said Jim Balsiger, Alaska regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries agency.

Carol Tocco, NMFS spokeswoman, said the rule is consistent with protections in place in Hawaii, where the whales migrate each year, and with voluntary guidelines in effect in Alaska.

The regulation was prompted largely by the growth of whale-watching charters in the waters of Southeast Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula, where humpbacks like to feed.

Tocco said there are about 6,000 humpback whales in the North Pacific, About 400 are in Southeast Alaska coastal waters, according to a 1999 sampling.

There will be fines for violations of the new rule, but the amounts have not yet been determined.

But some whale-watchers said violations are unlikely.

The owners of Adventures Afloat of Juneau say their 106-foot charter boat already stays a safe distance from the whales.

"They're big. You don't want to mess with them," said Linda Kadrlik, who owns the business with her husband Francis. "Sometimes they will come right in front of you and there's nothing you can do."

Melody Shell, a kayak guide for Baidarka Boats of Sitka, said the 100-yard rule is just common sense.

"Anything closer to me seems like you are endangering yourself," she said.

But Jan Straley, a whale researcher at the University of Alaska Southeast, said the original 200-yard proposal would have been better in some areas of Alaska, where there are a lot of whales and heavy whale-watching traffic.

In addition to a distance limit, people need to be educated about whales, she said. They need to know going full-throttle to see a 40-ton whale is not a good idea. Where there is one whale, there are usually others that can surface at any time, she said.